Coupon Experience Redesign

Making savings clear, actionable, and trustworthy

Redesigned the coupon experience to eliminate ambiguity, improve usability, and increase customer confidence in savings.

What Was Done

Eliminated “clip & hope” confusion

Improved clarity of coupon states

Streamlined path to redemption

Projected increase in engagement

The Problem

Over time, recurring themes began surfacing across both coupon-specific and broader savings research initiatives. Through surveys, customer interviews, usability studies, and behavioral insights, we consistently heard the same frustrations:

  • Customers were unsure if a coupon was successfully clipped

  • Users didn’t clearly understand what actions were required to redeem offers

  • Expiration timing often went unnoticed until it was too late

These pain points appeared repeatedly across multiple research efforts, signaling that the issue wasn’t isolated to a single feature—it reflected a broader gap in clarity and confidence within the savings experience.

This ultimately led to a “clip and hope” behavior, where users lacked trust that savings would actually be applied.

Unclear Status

When a coupon is clipped, it disappears, so all coupons on page appear to be unclipped and user may think they haven’t clipped any.

No Next Step

Is the right coupon clipped? Do I have items in my cart?

Hidden Expiration Date

My Approach

Design Principles

☁️ Clarity over ambiguity

Users instantly understand coupon status

🔎 Guided action

Clear next steps after clipping

⏰ Timely urgency

Expiration is obvious and actionable

Key Design Decisions

Simplified Interaction Model

  • Reduced buttons and steps

  • Streamlined clip → redeem flow

Clarified Action Needed

  • Standardized states: Available / Clipped

  • Removed ambiguity

  • Introduced progress bar to track items needed for deal completion

Reworked Tagging System

  • Aligned with broader product taxonomy

  • Improved recognition and consistency

Improved Contextual Expiration Date

  • Changed color of “Expires tomorrow”

  • Increased urgency + clarity

Cross-Functional Leadership

Product → strategy alignment  ⦿  Engineering → feasibility + implementation   ⦿  Research → validation   ⦿   Design → consistency + polish

A number of tradeoff discussions had to be facilitated across Product, Engineering, and Research to align customer needs with technical feasibility and future product vision.

We used customer research to identify which pain points required immediate solutions versus opportunities that could be addressed through future iterations, ensuring the MVP delivered meaningful value while remaining scalable long term.

What We Tested

Clarity of coupon status

Understanding of Requirements

Confidence in Redemption

Outcome

Due to broader company reprioritization, the final product ultimately did not ship. However, the work was extensively validated through user testing, research insights, and stakeholder alignment, reinforcing the value of the proposed direction.

More importantly, many of the learnings from this initiative continued to influence product decisions well beyond the original scope of coupons. Over a year later, findings around clarity, status communication, urgency, and user guidance are still informing design patterns and product card experiences across the broader Kroger ecosystem.

Key improvements:

  • Clearer coupon states

  • Reduced post-clip confusion

  • Stronger foundation for scalable design

Projected impact:

  • Increased engagement and redemption

  • Improved user confidence

  • Reduced support friction

Key Takeaways

Clarity builds trust in transactional UX

Small changes can drive meaningful behavior shifts

Systems thinking enables long-term scalability

Final Reflections

This project reinforced the importance of designing for confidence, not just functionality. By removing ambiguity and guiding users clearly, even a simple feature like coupons can become a more trusted and effective part of the experience.